This invention relates to a standardized and repeatable system for attaching articulating arm suspended equipment to an overhead building structure. More particularly, the invention relates to a pre-engineered and pre-manufactured rigidly designed mast structure attached to a pre-engineered and pre-manufactured releasably designed support carriage allowing for a repeatable, proven, easily installed, non-fixed method to bridge the distance between said equipment mounting flange located at finished ceiling elevation to the overhead building structure.
Articulating arm suspended equipment is highly dependent on the rigidity of the mounting structure in order to eliminate drifting. The equipment is typically mounted in an operating, emergency, critical care, wet lab area or the like, to an overhead mounting structure attached to the overhead building structure. The mounting structure is typically custom designed, fabricated and installed to meet a specific project site and application. Said mounting structure is typically custom designed to be field fit, fabricated and permanently welded or affixed to the existing overhead building structure making it difficult and time consuming to build and position the mounting structure. The fixed and field fabricated nature of the overhead mounting structure increases the complexity and difficulty of installation and limits the ease of future room layout changes and equipment rearrangements.
An object of this invention is to provide a pre-engineered, pre-fabricated, relocatable and repeatable system and method for attaching said articulated arm suspended equipment to an overhead building structure. The invention includes a frame that is removably bolted to the existing building structure, and easily adjustable and positionable in the X and Y directions relative to the floor below. A mast and system of bracing is moveably attached to the frame to allow for mounting of the articulating arm suspended equipment at the proper elevation above the finished floor. All components are designed to strict deflection criteria to eliminate drifting of the articulated arm suspended equipment.
Prior art includes U.S. Pat. Appl. No. 2004/0159761 A1 (Lipsky). Lipsky is not relevant to this invention but only to certain structures included in it, as will become clear.